I refused to feel hurt that he thought kissing me was idiotic. “You’re injured,” I said. “You go to bed and I’ll do the perimeter check.” Honor made me offer. And maybe the tiniest desire to run and hide.
His gaze was scorching. “If I get into that bed right now, there’s only one thing I’m going to be doing, and it’s not sleeping.”
My nipples pebbled under my shirt as renewed lust blazed through my system. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the kissing he thought was dumb. Warmth bloomed in my chest even as I told myself that being happy just because he hadn’t insulted me was no way to act.
He ran a hand down his face. “But I made you a promise, and I’m keeping it, which means I’m leaving.”
He moved the dresser with much less effort than I’d used and slipped out the door into the darkened hallway without another word. The door clicked closed behind him.
I sank down on the edge of the bed and touched my lips. That just happened. And I would’ve happily climbed into bed with him, consequences and tomorrows be damned. The thought sobered me. I hadn’t had this much trouble controlling myself since I was first allowed into Consortium events as a green girl.
Marcus Loch was dangerous for more reasons than I’d initially thought.
I decided to go to bed fully clothed. It was safer for both of us that way. I wrapped the cloak around me, crawled between the emergency blankets, and huddled on one side of the bed.
It took a long time to fall asleep.
Once again I awoke alone. I had vague memories of Marcus in the night, but I wasn’t sure if they were real or imaginary. My dreams had been fraught, I knew that much. The emotional turmoil of the day had followed me into sleep.
I sat up and checked my com. Bianca had responded. Her response involved a lot of sentences in all caps and threats of death and dismemberment, but in the end, she said she’d find the codes for me, though it would take a day or two.
She also dropped some veiled hints that things with Rockhurst were not as they seemed, but the message required a lot of reading between the lines. If she was being this careful even on the secure House accounts, then things were bad. I needed to be extra cautious.
Then she proved once again that she was two steps ahead of everyone else by including the following: Locks can be good protection but shouldn’t be trusted completely. I stared at the screen for a solid minute in wonder. I hadn’t mentioned Loch in my message, so was she fishing or did she know?
Either way, she had felt it necessary to warn me not to trust Loch. But why? The problem with all of the reading between the lines was that it was difficult to communicate effectively, but this was vague even for Bianca.
I had no doubt she was frantically trying to find my location, but I’d bounced the message through several different systems to obfuscate the trail. It wouldn’t stump her for long, but maybe it would be long enough for me to escape without her sending in the cavalry.
With that in mind, I decided to see what I could do about a shower and laundry. I would need to hit a shop first. From what I saw yesterday during my wander about the downtown area, there were only two or three general goods shops left. And if I was Richard, I’d have a man watching each of them. Everyone needed food and supplies sooner or later.
I changed into the clothes I’d bought yesterday. A long-sleeved pale blue tunic went on over narrow dull gold pants. A blue and gold scarf wrapped around my head and neck until just my eyes were visible. It was a risk going out dressed as a woman, but I’d seen several women out on the busier commercial streets. My outfit wouldn’t attract undue attention.
The slit in the side of the tunic allowed plenty of movement and also allowed me to attach a knife to my belt and still access it relatively easily. The hard credits went in a pouch with my com. I attached the pouch on the opposite hip from the knife.
“What are you wearing?” Loch asked.
I’d heard him a bare second before he spoke, so I managed not to jump into next week in fright. My heart rate still needed a second to recover, however. It needed quite a bit longer when I saw he’d showered and shaved.
“Did you buy soap or shampoo yesterday?” That would solve one problem.
Loch looked at me like I was crazy. Okay, then. I guess I was the only one who cared that my shower involved actual cleansers.
“I’m going out. I need shampoo, even if you don’t. And laundry detergent. And food.”
“And you’re going dressed like that?”
“Yes. With the cloak, of course. What’s wrong with this? I saw several women dressed similarly to this yesterday and everyone left them alone.”
“That’s because the men all know those women belong to Mr. Goswami, who will break any man’s face who so much as looks at one of his wives or daughters wrong. You, however, are neither wife nor daughter. And before you try it, no. You’re much too tall to pass for either.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I was warned,” he said, “when it appeared I’d been staring at the lady in question for too long. In fact I was watching the door behind her, but the merc who warned me didn’t know that.”
“Well, then I guess the men will have to learn that I, too, will break any man’s face who tries to start shit with me.”
“And you think a random woman wearing a full face veil and kicking ass is just going to fly right past Rockhurst? He’ll snatch you up before you set foot wherever you’re going.”
“Very well,” I said. “With the understanding that I will buy shampoo, laundry detergent, and food today, what would you suggest instead?”
“I suggest you eat an energy bar and give up on soap,” Loch said. “The more often we’re out, the more dangerous it is.”
He was right, dammit. But if I had to sit and dawdle in this room all day, I’d go crazy. And while I could think of one delicious way we could pass the time, that would complicate matters even more, especially with Bianca’s warning fresh in my mind.
I changed back into the clothes I’d taken from the escape ship. I was frustrated enough that I didn’t even care that Loch was in the room, though I changed my pants under the cover of the tunic and turned my back on him to change my shirt.
The drab camo and black mocked the beauty of my former outfit. Impatience and annoyance nipped at me. I needed to recenter myself before I did something stupid. And while seated meditation was always an option, I needed movement.
I moved to the center of the room, closed my eyes, and inhaled deeply through my nose. I held the breath for a few beats then released it through my mouth. Five more deep breaths and I fell into the beginning stance of my short, meditative martial arts form.
Solo, weaponless martial arts forms could be done anywhere with no equipment, so it was something all the von Hasenberg children were taught from a young age. We’d had thirty minutes of practice in various styles before class every day. It helped to build strength and flexibility, but it also helped to calm and center the mind.
I focused on the movements and let the rest of the world fade away. Tension faded, replaced with strength and calm. I finished the sequence and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, Loch stood in front of me.
“Care to spar?” he asked.
Chapter 9
There are moments in your life when you absolutely know what you should do and then you absolutely choose to do something else entirely.
This was one of those moments.
“I would love to spar,” I said. “No face, no eyes, no balls, and, for the love of God, pull your punches. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” he said. He dropped into a typical mixed martial arts stance. I mirrored his stance and nodded my readiness.
Even obviously slowed down he moved like lightning. I went defensive, dancing out of his reach and deflecting the blows I couldn’t avoid. His form was tight and he didn’t leave openings in his guard. My self-defense tutor would’ve loved him.
“You gonna hit me, darling, or you just gonna dan
ce around?” he asked a few minutes later.
I dodged a slow jab at my side. “Hand-to-hand fighting is a last resort for me, and I generally learned how to do it just long enough to make an opportunity to run.” I blocked a stomach blow then flowed away from a right cross that would’ve clipped my shoulder. “Which means I fight dirty then run away. Since neither of those is an option right now, I’m biding my time.”
Loch stopped attacking and stepped back into a defensive stance. “Your time is now,” he said with a grin. “Bring it on.”
I feinted a right then got through his guard low with my left fist.
“That was well done,” he said. “You didn’t telegraph your intentions at all.”
“My self-defense tutor could be a bitch, but she had my best interest at heart. She taught me well. It’s not her fault that I didn’t take to fighting.”
I jabbed at him a few more times, both straight punches and feints, but now he was on guard and blocked or dodged all my attempts. That was why, in a real fight, the first feint would be followed by the hardest punch I could throw. You only had one chance to surprise an opponent with skill.
Loch struck out with his left fist. I saw the blow too late to do more than tense my ab muscles. Even pulled it landed hard enough to smart. I backed away into a defensive stance.
“Don’t run away,” Loch said.
“I just told you that running away is one of the core pillars of my fighting strategy.”
“Okay,” he allowed, “run away in a real fight, but don’t run away from me. I promised to pull my punches.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t promise to stand around as a human punching bag,” I said as I dodged yet another attempt at my midsection.
“You’re quick,” Loch said, “and good at reading your opponent. With a little more training you wouldn’t have to worry about running.”
I laughed. “Don’t think my tutor didn’t try. I have the knowledge but not the desire. I will fight viciously to save my life or rescue a friend, but most other situations can just as easily be solved by evasion.”
“How are you at grappling?”
“Worse than terrible,” I said. I watched him closely, because I had a feeling he wasn’t asking just for the fun of it. I wasn’t lying; if he caught me, it was over.
I avoided him for a minute, but then he snagged my arm and used my own momentum to spin me around until I was trapped with my back against his chest. My arms crossed in front of me and he had a hand clamped around each of my wrists.
“How do you get out of this hold?”
“First, I head-butt you,” I said while I mimed doing it. “Then I stomp on your toes if you’re not wearing boots. Then I hook my foot here,” I said, wrapping my foot around his lower right leg, “and throw my weight back while you’re off-balance.”
“That would probably work, though then you’d be on the ground. How about this one?” He spun me around until my back was against the wall then pressed close.
I hit him with my sexiest smoldering glance. “First,” I said, “I look at you like this. Then I run my hand up your chest like this.” I demonstrated, but kept going until my hand rested on the back of his head.
“Then I pull your head down to mine,” I said. I licked my lips and his eyes dropped half-closed. “And head-butt your nose, gouge your eyes, and knee you in the balls,” I whispered a centimeter from his mouth.
Loch froze then burst out laughing. “That definitely would work.” He let me go and backed away. I fought the urge to pull him back and kiss him for real.
I changed the subject to safer topics. “So now you know why running is the core tenet of my defense,” I said.
“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Loch said. “I was moving slower than my normal speed, but I’ve sparred at that speed with many trained soldiers who couldn’t dodge and deflect as well as you did.”
I smiled at the compliment but shook my head. “It’s because the mind-set is different,” I said. “Soldiers don’t retreat by default. I do.”
Between the martial arts warm-up and sparring, I was feeling nearly relaxed. My muscles were warm and pliant with none of the residual soreness I’d been carrying for the last couple days. Even my mind was clear and focused.
“So the fence yesterday did not carry any ranged weapons,” I said. “Any idea why?”
“Supply is locked down. Mr. Goswami—of the wives and daughters fame—has the only shop in town. And he prefers it that way. Even the fences won’t cross him. Those who do disappear.”
“Security?”
“Guards twenty-four-seven. Electronic locks and surveillance equipment with redundant fail-safes. All with internal battery backups.”
“And you know that how?” Sometimes I wondered if Loch just made shit up to see if I’d believe him.
“You aren’t the only person in this group who’d like to have a gun,” he said. “I checked out the situation yesterday morning. The door I was watching was the one to Mr. Goswami’s shop.”
“Okay, so the shop is out. Surely some merc on this planet is stupid enough to have both guns and bad security. We just need to find one.”
Loch held out his com. “The address of one Vance Burnam and his boss, August Chisholm. Both of whom are currently in the medbay.”
“No!” I said with a disbelieving gasp.
“Indeed yes,” Loch said. “Even better, it’s nowhere near the central district.”
“Why didn’t you just lead with that? We could be there already!”
“Even in the shadier districts, it’s generally frowned on to break into someone else’s house at high noon.”
Personally, high noon seemed like an excellent time. The shadier elements were probably fast asleep from their late-night shenanigans. But maybe if people were out causing trouble they wouldn’t be home to see us sneaking into their neighbor’s house.
For now I needed water, food, and a shower. Definitely water first, though, if I had to choke down another energy bar. I collected my empty bottles and made my way to the kitchen. The hallway was dark but dim light spilled through the frosted glass front window. The endless twilight was starting to get to me. How did people live here?
Unfortunately, I knew better than to turn on a light that could be visible from outside and since the kitchen opened to the dining room window, I had to feel my way around until my eyes adjusted.
I turned on the sink full-blast and let it run for five minutes. We were lucky that frontier towns like this generally didn’t meter water or power and didn’t shut them off when the occupants left. Yamado owned the whole town—both buildings and infrastructure—so it was easier to just leave everything hooked up for the next tenant.
I filled the bottles and carried them back into the bedroom to check the clarity before I risked a drink. The nanobots in my blood would knock out any waterborne pathogens before they had a chance to take root, but I still didn’t relish the thought of drinking dirty water.
The light revealed clear water, so I drank a bottle while choking down two energy bars. They did not improve with familiarity. I had enough to last me a few more days but I wasn’t exactly relishing the prospect.
Next up: shower. My delight at a real water shower dimmed significantly when I realized there was no hot water. Someone had probably scavenged parts off of the water heater. The lack of soap worked in my favor, though, because I didn’t have to stay in the frigid water long enough to rinse away soapy residue.
Even with the brief shower I was shivering violently by the time I was done. I dried quickly then draped the heated cloak around me while I dressed in the black pants and long-sleeved black shirt I’d bought from the fence. The chill settled into my bones.
This sucked.
Admitting it helped. There was a lot to be said for pushing on without complaint, but sometimes it was nice to just stop and admit things were terrible. Embracing the terrible made it more manageable, at least for me.
I spent the rest of
the day catching up on news. There was no mention of the Mayport. The SOS beacon should’ve activated as soon as the emergency ship undocked, so it was unlikely that it hadn’t been found. Unless the override Richard’s soldiers had used to disable the ship’s computer had also disabled the SOS beacon.
The Mayport wasn’t due at the next jump point for another couple days, so Father wouldn’t be searching for me yet, which gave Richard time to act. I’d thought he’d been in the area and I had been a convenient political target, but with everything I’d learned from Bianca, I wasn’t so sure.
I checked my accounts to see if Richard had reached out. He hadn’t, not even to my personal account, which he knew was secure from the rest of the House.
With nothing else to do, I settled in for a few hours of sleep. It was still early, but I’d learned to catch sleep where I could. I was nearly out when Loch joined me, a wall of warmth against my back that I could feel through our clothes. I hummed in appreciation and snuggled back against him. The man was better than a heat field.
“Go back to sleep, Ada,” he murmured. And I did.
Hours later, Loch and I slipped into the twilight and skirted around the central district. We headed for the same seedy area we’d visited the first day but we took a much longer route.
We kept to the shadows and darkened alleys when possible. Because we were at the inflection point between late and early, only a handful of people were out. As we got into the more residential areas, even those few people disappeared.
No witnesses was nice, but it also made us stand out. “Is there a curfew?” I whispered to Loch at the next corner.
“Not that I know about,” he whispered back. “But I’m avoiding the lawmen just the same.”
“Good plan.”
We wound through shabbier and shabbier neighborhoods until the plastech buildings were more boards and mud than plastech.
We circled the same block twice before Loch stopped behind the middle house on the block. He checked his com. “This is it,” he said. The house was dark, as were the two beside it. Either luck was with us or the occupants knew better than to let light escape.
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